Wheat procurement policy turns into a fiasco

The faulty wheat procurement policy has failed to deliver as the provincial food departments and Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Supply Corporation (Passco) fell much short of target, it is learnt here.
The Punjab food department, a major wheat procurer, fell short of its target by one million tons. The department had the target of 3.5 million tons for 2004-05, but as on June 25, it could buy only 2.4 million tons commodity.
The federal government depends heavily on the provincial food departments to meet demands of flour mills from August to March every year, and fewer stocks would simply mean reduced supply to flour mills this year.
Passco's case is no different from Punjab food department as it could procure only 0.8 million tons against the target of 1.1 million tons.
A situation wherein, Passco and Punjab food department fell short of target, one cannot hope of a miracle from Sindh and Balochistan's food departments either.
A shortfall of 0.3 million tons in the case of Passco and over one million tons in the case of Punjab food department is a strong indication of hard time ahead for the flour mills and the people altogether.
Now, when the procurement season is over, the government's drive for wheat buying cannot add any considerable quantity to the stocks to take net total to some reasonable level.
Among many other factors, lower rates put the provincial food departments and Passco at disadvantage against the private sector.
Even pressure tactics such as ban on movement of wheat and keeping the flour mills out of procurement process could not work up to the policy makers expectations.
Keeping in view slow procurement, the Punjab government has banned inter-provincial movement of wheat. The rationale behind the ban was to meet the procurement target so that wheat supply to deficient provinces could be ensured. The ban is yet to be lifted. Although, the policy has hit the flour mills below the belt.
Such tactics adversely hit the people, as they have no other option but to buy flour at irrationally higher rates. A bag of 20-kg flour is available at Rs 225 and in some areas even at higher rates.
Historically, flour prices remain low from April to October every year. For the remaining months, before the new crop reaches the market rates go up slightly. But the flour price pattern is totally different this time to the normal graph, as the prices are ranging between Rs 225 and Rs 230 from the very beginning of the season -April and flour millers apprehend further jump in flour prices in a week or so.